So i just got back from Iraq this week and have been cleaning up and doing maintenance on my new to me 96 7.3 CCLB. First off, this truck ROCKS! Huge, loud and totally American in every way :) So after idling for about a half hour we noticed a small fuel leak dripping off the back of the engine. checked the valley area and found a puddle, so we got to digging in. took out the fuel bowl, cleaned it up and replaced the filter (btw, how important is the fuel warmer wire inside the bowl?) found a few rubber lines coming off the back of the fuel bowl that were cracked so we cut new pieces and replaced them. after putting it all back together, primed the system and started it back up, it was still leaking. checked with the engine running and its spitting fuel out of what looks like a fuel regulator (3 rubber fuel lines run from the fuel bowl to this mystery component). what is it and how difficult is it to replace?

i guess the necessity of the fuel bowl heater would depend on what region you are located in. As far as the mystery component, are you referring to the mechanical fuel pump located in the center of the engine valley, just forward of the turbo? That's the only thing I can think of that has 3 rubber fuel lines going to it... And it isn't too bad to replace once you pull the fuel bowl off

That would be the fuel pump, no?

Thats it!!! its leaking just enough to create a steady drip coming off the rear of the block. guess the fuel bowl is coming back out tomorrow to change the fuel pump... fuel system is gonna be brand new before the end of the week!

Yeah, the fuel pump has a weep hole that starts dumping fuel when the pump goes bad. Mine did the same thing a few months back. It wouldn't have been a bad swap except for the fact that once I pulled everything apart I had to order all new hoses and a fuel bowl heater. Had to wait a few days for those parts to come in. Otherwise it would have only taken a few hours.

Hose replacement is one of those "good measure" things; you have the pump out, capitalize on the situation and refresh all the "soft" parts. But it's standard fuel-injection-pressure bulk hose; buy a foot at the FLAPS and you have some left over.

Fuel heater can, in most climes, be decommissioned. It's an artifact of the time the truck was built, back when the woolly mammoth roarded and the streets were paved with oxen dung, and diesel fuel was not nearly as stable in cold weather as it is now. It's famous for shorting out, blowing the #22 fuse and causing a no-start. So another common "while you're in there" procedure is to just remove it.

Yeah, it's always a good idea to replace the hoses while you're in there, I went the route of ordering the OEM blue hoses, and I went ahead and replaced my broken fuel bowl heater even though I'm in Georgia and it probably isn't necessary here. Ordered everything from guzzle.